Mall mural: Coco Naples gets a sign equal to its mission: a large look at local art
If Southwest Florida is so artistic, the natural question is: Why people can't see its art more often than at fleeting festivals?
Now they can. Two art galleries now deal exclusively with Southwest Florida-created art. Its newest, the Coco Art Gallery at Coastland Center in Naples, just got its own literal billboard: a 60-by-15-foot wall mural facing the internal entrance to Macy’s department store.
Scott Brown, manager of the Naples Coco, put on his figurative beret and smock to become the artist, creating a serene Naples Pier.
It comes from a painting Brown had already finished from an early morning beach photograph: “I loved the picture. There were very, very few people on the Pier at the time.” It was the Gulf and the Gulf’s creatures, he said. When he received permission from the mall’s management to create a mural for the gallery, that was the piece to which he gravitated.
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It may be Brown’s only work in the gallery, somewhere between a week and 10 days worth of scaling and painting. A ribbon cutting welcomed the complete mural, with its scene split and the gallery’s name and information in the middle panel, in late November.
That date also marked the Naples Coco Art Gallery’s first year. Both it and the Coco Art Gallery in Coconut Point are operations of the Art Council of Southwest Florida, which comprises 21 art leagues. Their mission: To bring their artists' work to the people of Southwest Florida.
"This was an old Lane Bryant previously. So when we inherited it, we had the beautiful walls, the great lighting and the flooring is just fantastic," Brown said of its corner showroom. There were some liabilities, of course: the password-protected cash registers, which had to be tossed. Coco's back room is also still harboring the leftover LB mannequins. (Lane Bryant is a women's apparel retailer.)
Scott uses them for jewelry display when he can and he would doubtlessly welcome a wearable art sale — a big one. "We've got 30 bodies back there," he said chuckling.
The Estero gallery has been in Coconut Point long enough to create a niche. Brown is working on getting a similar one for Naples. “Not enough people know us,” Brown said.
Those who do know them will find the store stocked with pieces that speak to gift giving at this time of year. Small sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, note cards and wood pieces as well as two-dimensional art in oil, pastel, acrylic and watercolor are in the inventory. Small works and giclées are also available in bins
If Brown's work isn't in the gallery, some of his coworkers' is. Gil Sanchez, who handles two-dimensional art hanging at Coco Naples, is himself a ceramics and fused-glass artist. Visitors are currently being treated to his pieces are snail-riding frogs, platters and wall pieces such as his simply titled, but intricately fused, "Roses."
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To allow a good number of artists to have their day under the lights, inventory changes on the second Monday of each month. So be warned: Everything in the photographs for this story is likely to be gone (Brown and one of the other employees will likely know where it came from and have a contact, however.)
There is a two-month option available to the artists as well, he added. Brown said there's likely to be a heavier influx of art because everyone wants to be in the gallery during the holidays.
"We have about 40 to 50 artists who come in and are continuously displaying here. And in the next week we're probably going to get a lot of holiday items," he said.
"But it's always fresh, it's always new, it's always kind of exciting," he said of hte inventory, stopping to inspect Valerie Cristo's "Spikey Stoneware." Its globular head is a mass of thorns and its mouth agape with tiny teeth, all of it ceramic.
"This looks just like a puffer fish. How do you make that?" he marveled,
"When you look at the art inside, it's Fifth Avenue quality with Main Street pricing," he said.
"People walk by all the time. But when they stop in, they say, 'What the heck is this?' And they spend a thousand dollars — and they didn't even know we were there."
Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com.
Where: Entrance 8 at the Coastland Center, 1900 U.S. 41 N., Naples; across from Macy's department store
Hours: Noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays (possible longer hours on Black Friday), except: closed second Tuesdays for inventory renewal
Information: cocoartgallery.com or 239-436-3530
Coming up:
January 3-31 — Southwest Florida Wax
February 1-28 — Southwest Watercolor Society
March 1-31 — Southwest Florida Pastel Society
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples' Coastland Center mall gets 20-foot mural to promote local art
